Train consists may be configured with one or more locomotives and one or more cars. The locomotives may include a leading master locomotive and one or more trailing slave locomotives. A train controller may adjust the distribution of power between the various locomotives, based on vehicle operating conditions and/or operating commands, to improve vehicle performance.
Distributed power systems may be operated in a synchronous mode wherein the operation of the slave locomotives (herein also referred to as remote consists) may be synchronized to match the operation of the master locomotive (herein also referred to as lead consist), for example using common notch settings. Alternatively, distributed power systems may be operated in a fully independent mode wherein the operation of each locomotive is adjusted independently and additional degrees of freedom are allowed. As such, due to the inclusion of multiple factors and constraints, optimization routines that determine locomotive settings for an independent trip plan may be more complex than routines that determine settings for synchronous trip plans. Furthermore, multiple solutions may be computed for independent trip plans, and the selection of a final plan may require additional inputs, such as an operator input.
Optimization routines may be used to determine locomotive settings for a synchronous trip plan or an independent trip plan based on vehicle operating conditions, the selected mode of distributed power control, and operator inputs (such as operator preferences). However, there may be segments of a synchronous trip plan wherein further performance improvements may be obtained by using independent distributed power control. Similarly, there may be segments of an independent trip plan that may benefit from synchronous distributed power control.